Cash management in stores today can be described as simply allowing money collected from customers to accumulate in the register. When there is an excess accumulation of cash (i.e., an amount of cash exceeding a predetermined amount of cash) in the register, the cashier drops the excess bills into a "drop safe". At a later predetermined time (or times) the store manager recovers those dropped bills. In particular, the actual management of cash in most stores comprises the manager of each store opening the safe once a day, taking the cash into the back room, counting the cash and filling out deposit slips. The manager then takes the cash to the bank for deposit with the deposit slips. This procedure is not only burdensome with regard to the time required by the manager, but there is also the potential of a robbery when the money is exposed in the back room with the manager as well as during the transport from the store to the bank.
This cash management process in a retail store requires a "counting" to be done during each of four stages: (1) when the cashier makes change for the customer during the transaction; (2) when the cashier removes the excess cash from the cash register; (3) when the store manager retrieves the cash from each of the drop safes and then counts/verifies that the total of each cashier's drops equals the total sales rung up by that cashier; and (4) when the store manager assembles all of the cash drops into a single collection for preparation of a bank deposit, the manager must add up all of the cash and verify that the store's total amount of sales is equivalent to the total amount of cash that is in place. The counting of stages 3 (i.e., balancing by cashier) and 4 (balancing the entire store) can be summarized by the following audit equation, namely, EQU Amount.sub.SAFE +Amount.sub.REGISTER =Amount.sub.RUNG UP +Amount.sub.STARTING.
In addition, in the present convenience stores owned by the Assignee of the present invention, namely Wawa, Inc., the cash management strategy is to not only track total revenues versus total cash on hand, but to track by individual cashier, the amount of sales that were rung up versus the amount of cash that that individual placed into the safe.
However, such a four stage process involves redundant counting of money and is very complicated. It is, therefore, desirable to make only a single "count" at stage 1 and thereby eliminate duplicative counting at stages 2-4.
The cash management system of the present invention facilitates this audit by providing the store manager, as well as the store owner, with the amount of cash dropped in the safe, thereby eliminating the counting of stages 2-4.
The following U.S. Patents disclose examples of cash management or securement devices.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,187 (McGunn) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,837 (McGunn) there is disclosed a safe having multiple openings in the form of drawers, with each of the drawers having different colors. The colors permit the separation of money dropped in the safe by person or by shift.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,811 (Henochowicz et al.) there is disclosed a system for using automatic cash savings machines, where individual savers may deposit cash. The cash savings machines have means for insertion of the ID of the saver. The cash boxes are periodically picked up by an armored courier with the information as to the amount deposited and the ID of the depositor, either recorded and carried on a data disk or communicated by a satellite or land links to a central location.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,718 (Cedergren) there is disclosed a locking system for locking and unlocking a container wherein the locking system is controlled via an electronically-controlled code lock interacting with a control device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,851,652 (Imran) there is disclosed an electronic lock box that operates in conjunction with a computer with individual electronic keys.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,222 (Imran) there is disclosed a lock box that utilizes an electronically-driven actuator for latching and unlatching the locking member.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,443 (Barrett et al.) there is disclosed an electronic lock system that utilizes a key having a memory which collects data relating to lock operation each time the key interacts with the lock system.
In U.S. Pat. No.4,988,987 (Barrett et al.) there is disclosed an electronic lock system with individual access using key pads with electronic keys having predetermined useful lives.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,782 (Donath et al.) discloses an electronically-controlled release of a safe with function locks using electronically coded keys. The various users can be automatically identified or registered with the aid of an employed code association.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,880 (Henderson et al.) there is disclosed an electronic lock system with battery conservation features.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,277 (Graef et al.) there is disclosed a remote depository with sealed container construction that is used for receiving bank transaction deposits in envelopes at an unmanned location under conditions of security.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,395 (Zouzoulas et al.) there is disclosed a method and apparatus for a lockable, removable cassette, for securely storing currency.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,335 (Shuren et al.) there is disclosed a security arrangement for use with a lockable, removable cassette.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,341 (Bachman) there is disclosed a currency storage device for stacking and storing paper currency.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,746 (Ishigure) there is disclosed a device for automatically opening and closing the cash inlet-outlet opening of a cash container which is detachably installable into a rack in a cash handling apparatus.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,736 (Roccoberton et al.) there is disclosed a locking currency stacker for use with a currency validation apparatus.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,569 (Crane et al.) there is disclosed a security paper verification device for detecting the presence or absence of the security feature that are embedded in the paper.
The following are examples of safes that are commercially available for use in cash management systems.
Allied/Gary International manufactures a number of safes for commercial use, including, the AUTOBANK 24, AUTOBANK 24I and AUTOBANK 24 IS for use in store cash management systems.
McGunn Safe Company manufactures a number of safes for commercial use, including the QUICK DROP 1512, the CASH HANDLER 2820E and the SMART SAFE.RTM.. The SMART SAFE.RTM. includes color-coded drawers, envelopes and canisters and includes automated tracking via a screen and/or reports from a printer.
Armor Safe Technologies manufactures a line of cash controller products under the name CACHESYSTEM.TM., such as CHANGEBANK.TM., the TREASURY.TM., REDICACHE.TM., POSICACHE.TM. and VALIDROP. However, these products when used for electronic drop safes as intended for the environment of this invention, are not functionally nor ergonomically suited for a store operation at a cashier station.